By Scott Meacham
The coronavirus pandemic has given whole segments of the economy the opportunity, and yes, even the permission, to do things differently. It is a generational opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to solve big problems for important industries.
Over the last few weeks, I have focused on macro implications of the pandemic—entrepreneurial pivots, the drop in the price of energy, the expansion of internet access for Oklahoma students, and the plusses and minuses of working from home. For this last column in my series, I asked Dr. Angelique Barreto — my primary care physician — to talk about the micro impact of the pandemic on a family practice like hers.
“When I look back, the way I run my practice has completely changed,” Dr. Barreto said. “Other physicians may have a different set of circumstances, but I don’t believe it will ever return to pre-COVID days again. The digitalization of my practice and the ability to use telehealth effectively has been the best thing to come out of this pandemic.”
As defined by the New England Journal of Medicine, telehealth is the delivery of healthcare, health education, and health information services via remote technologies. From mobile health apps (smartphones are used by more than 80 percent of the people in the U.S.) to video conferencing, to remote patient monitoring (RPM), technologies supporting telehealth are available and robust.
“This was going to happen anyway over time,” Dr. Barreto said, “but sometimes it takes a crisis to effect change. The federal government and the insurance companies agreeing to reimburse physicians at equivalent rates of office visits, while reducing the pressure of charting and reporting, which needed to happen anyway, allowed physicians like me to keep the virtual doors of our clinics open. My staff could remain empl